RSNA Perception Laboratory

Summary

Improving cancer detection and diagnosis through perceptual and cognitive research on cancer image perception is a priority for BBSPB and BRP. Studying trained professionals, such as radiologists, is key to the success of this scientific endeavor, but it is often difficult for researchers to get enough radiologists to participate in their experiments. One solution to this problem is to go where the radiologists are: the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, which attracts roughly 25,000 practicing radiologists. Individual labs had tried this strategy in the past, on an ad hoc basis, with limited results. The NCI Perception Laboratory at RSNA provides a shared facility for investigators to recruit and test radiologist observers in a high-visibility location with support from the meeting organizers. Twenty-one laboratories from the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom participated in 2019, collectively running 1,576 participants over the four years that the Laboratory has been in operation.